December 4, 2014

Thank You AG Holder!!!

For years now one of the things that has frustrated me about the "what have you done for me lately" Blackacademics has been their insistence that the Obama administration hasn't done anything for the African American community. That's why - back in 2011 - I started writing about DOJ's investigations into police brutality.

Today we learned that the investigation into Cleveland's Police Department has resulted in a finding that they have engaged in a pattern and practice of using excessive force. It is horribly sad that this finding comes too late to save the life of Tamir Rice. But perhaps we can take some small amount of comfort in the fact that previous investigations might have saved the lives of others. And hopefully this one will be part of finding justice for Tamir's death.

P.S. For those of you who - like me - are going to miss having Eric Holder as our Attorney General, this article about what he plans to do in the future is hopeful. And in 2 years, he's likely to have some company

But, I have to say; these are the kinds of issues that I’ve talked about with the President since his first days here in Washington, DC. I met him before he had been sworn in as a senator. We bonded over these criminal justice reform concerns and views of racial matters. We share a worldview...

http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2014/12/thank-you-ag-holder.html

November 29, 2014

Albert Einstein Called Racism “A Disease of White People” in His Little-Known Fight for Civil Rights

Albert Einstein’s activities as a passionate advocate for peace were well-documented during his lifetime. His celebrity as a famous physicist and one of the world’s most recognizable faces lent a great deal of weight to his pacifism, a view otherwise not given much consideration in the popular press at almost any time in history. However, according to a 2006 book titled Einstein on Race and Racism by Fred Jerome and Roger Taylor, the scientist was also as passionate about combating racism and segregation as he was about combating war. This facet of Einstein’s life was virtually ignored by the media, as was a visit he made in 1946 to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, the first degree-granting college for African-Americans and the alma mater of Langston Hughes and Thurgood Marshall.

Invited to Lincoln to receive an honorary degree, Einstein gave a lecture on physics but also bluntly addressed the racial animus that held the country in its grip, reportedly calling racism, “a disease of white people” and saying he “did not intend to be quiet” about his opposition to segregation and racist public policy. Lest anyone think the Nobel-prize-winning physicist was pandering to his audience, the Harvard Gazette offers a comprehensive summary of Einstein’s support of progressive anti-racist causes, including his personal support of members of Princeton’s black community (he paid one man’s college tuition), a town Princeton native Paul Robeson once called “the northernmost town in the south.”

Einstein formed relationships with several prominent black leaders—inviting opera singer Marian Anderson to stay in his home after she was refused a room at the Nassau Inn and appearing as a character witness for W.E.B. Dubois when the latter stood accused of “failing to register as a foreign agent.” But it was his 20-year friendship with Robeson that seems central to his involvement in civil rights causes. The Harvard Gazette writes:

Einstein met Paul Robeson when the famous singer and actor came to perform at Princeton’s McCarter Theatre in 1935. The two found they had much in common. Both were concerned about the rise of fascism, and both gave their support to efforts to defend the democratically elected government of Spain against the fascist forces of Francisco Franco. Einstein and Robeson also worked together on the American Crusade to End Lynching, in response to an upsurge in racial murders as black soldiers returned home in the aftermath of World War II.

http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/albert-einstein-civil-rights-activist.html


Albert Einstein And Segregation In America





“Einstein, when he arrived in America, was shocked at how Black Americans were treated. “There is separation of colored people from white people in the United States,” he said. “That separation is not a disease of colored people. It is a disease of white people. And, I do not intend to be quiet about it.”

And, he wasn’t. Although he had a fear of speaking in public, he made all the effort he could to spread the word of equality, denouncing racism and segregation and becoming a huge proponent of civil rights even before the term became fashionable. Einstein was a member of several civil rights groups (including the Princeton chapter of the NAACP).

http://nedhardy.com/2013/04/22/albert-einstein-and-segregation-in-america/

November 18, 2014

UNFUCK AMERICA! Blackness is not a threat.

Gov Jay Nixon activates the MO National Guard to #Ferguson in the event of unrest



I am so distressed. Governor Jay Nixon activates the MO National Guard and issues A State of Emergency based on what he THINKS black people may do at the announcement of the Darren Wilson Ferguson Grand Jury decision. OMFG! Preconceived notions!!! How in the living hell can police not have preconceived notions about black people when a Gov activates the National Guard based on the same idea?

The Klan protest, law enforcement gives them an escort. Black people protest, the National Guard is activated. A State of Emergency is issued! Black people can’t walk while black, drive while black, seek help while black, shop while black and now protest while black because black people protesting is a threat & dangerous for white society.

UNFUCK AMERICA! Blackness is not a threat.

Governor Nixon is not slick. He’s using the State of Emergency to violate citizens a right to protest because in a State of Emergency citizens can lose their individual rights. We see you, Governor Nixon!

Read More

November 16, 2014

Will pundits finally acknowledge President Obama's intelligence?

******Sigh~ This is posted in the Barack Obama Group. You are welcome to post if you follow our mission statement here~ Read More If you cannot, then GD----------------->Is that away. TIA************


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Over the last six years what I've noticed is that when President Obama succeeds, pundits have tended to call him "lucky" and when he fails, they call him "naive." I've found both labels to not only be wrong, but offensive - based on how intelligent this President happens to be.

As a result, I've looked a little deeper into what his strategies might be. We all know that as a lawyer in Chicago, Barack Obama taught classes on power and conflict. From a pragmatic point of view, he's obviously thought more deeply about those topics than your average political pundit. So whether he succeeds or fails in his exploration of "the viability of politics to make change" (how Michelle Obama described his foray into politics), I've found it fascinating to assume his intelligence and try to understand what he's up to.

Here's a great quote in it from Michelle Obama:

...after he was elected to the U.S. Senate, his wife, Michelle, told a reporter, "Barack is not a politician first and foremost. He's a community activist exploring the viability of politics to make change." Recalling her remark in 2005, Obama wrote, "I take that observation as a compliment."

This is who he is and who he's always been. He affirmed that during the primaries in his great "Yes We Can" speech in New Hampshire.We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.

Read More


This column from Paul Waldman is one of the first I've seen in a very long time that goes a little bit deeper to assume President Obama knows what he's doing. In it, Waldman is exploring the possibility that Republicans will actually try to impeach the President over his upcoming executive action on immigration - even though their leadership knows it will come back to haunt them.

They [Republican leadership] really would be super-mad, not least because it would highlight their own impotence. In that state, they might well do something rash...And they'll be getting plenty of encouragement from the conservative media, for whom impeachment would be a ratings bonanza.

Barack Obama knows all this, of course. He obviously feels that the particular immigration steps he's contemplating are the right thing to do, and he understands that Republicans are never, ever going to pass a comprehensive reform bill that would be remotely acceptable to him. But he also knows that taking executive action will drive them batty, making some kind of emotional outburst on their part more likely. Which would end up being good for him and bad for them.

Read More

BOG

November 9, 2014

My Father~ He slipped quietly away from me this morning

[url=http://postimg.org/image/padbgestp/][img][/img][/url] 1922~2014

Not a perfect man, yet he was my father and I loved him. He passed away in his sleep early this morning. We knew it was almost time. All day yesterday family, that were well enough, arrived to sit with him. I had four hours alone with my dad. I held his hand and said goodbye as I looked out the window, watching the sun shine through the brilliant autumn leaves. None of us knew, he would die hours after the last one of us left.

In the last year he never knew my sister or me. He had reached the final stage of Alzheimer's disease. He never knew me, yet I know he loved me.


Omaha Steve posted this Op for me almost thirty days to the day of my Fathers passing. It was so very kind of him. There is a video at the link of Glen Campbell, his final ballad is called “I’m Not Gonna Miss You”. Glen Cambell is reaching the finale stages of Alzheimer's Disease.

&feature=player_embedded

http://betterment.democraticunderground.com/1017220580#top


Here are the words~


http://www.metrolyrics.com/im-not-gonna-miss-you-lyrics-glen-campbell.html

I'm still here, but yet I'm gone
I don't play guitar or sing my songs
They never defined who I am
The man that loves you 'til the end
You're the last person I will love
You're the last face I will recall
And best of all, I'm not gonna to miss you.
Not gonna miss you.
I'm never gonna hold you like I did
Or say I love you to the kids
You're never gonna see it in my eyes
It's not gonna hurt me when you cry
I'm never gonna know what you go through
All the things I say or do
All the hurt and all the pain
One thing selfishly remains
I'm not gonna miss you
I'm not gonna miss you

It's is a cruel disease. You sit there and watch the light slowly fade away and the memories turn to dust. Tears~

Someone suggested that I write down one memory so that I don't forget, so I will do it here then print it. I was my dads baby girl and a tomboy to boot~ He had a trucking company and would take me along with him. He would lift me up high and put me in the cab of the truck with this huge window spread before me and I could see the whole wide world. It was just my dad and me, on top of the world and laughing out loud, we could be anything. I was about 5 at the time. Yes that is my fondest memory by far~

October 27, 2014

There was a gun in my house

Preliminary reports from yesterday's school massacre is that the shooter had just broken up with his girlfriend, one of his victims. When a gun is present in a household with domestic abuse, women are 5 times more likely to be murdered with it. When a gun is present in the house, even without domestic abuse, a woman is 3 times more likely to be killed with that gun. It's a simple fact: gun access to angry people means dead people.

Found on FB: https://www.facebook.com/thereprimandproject?hc_location=timeline

There was one when I was growing up. As a teen, my sister had already left for college when my mom came to my room. She handed me a manila envelope and asked me to hide it. I asked her what it was, she said it's your fathers gun. I was never sure if it was fear for herself or fear that he would commit suicide. I suppose it was a toss up...yet I think it had more to do with suicide. There was abuse, yet there were suicide attempts that we the children were in front row seats for. Weren't we lucky.

My brother committed suicide 7 years ago. My sister and I were stronger, we survived.

My marriage, a gun there as well. I found it when I was remaking the bed one morning. It was tucked under the mattress on his side of the bed. I went cold when I pulled it out. Yes there was spousal abuse both verbal and physical. We had not been married long, yet we dated for years. It took me little time to walk out the door.

I was done with it. Did I have a lot of support, in the end with my leaving? Yes. Yet it is a quite crime that happens to so many women. You just don't talk about it. You are silent

Sssh~ don't tell.

October 17, 2014

You may trod me down in the very dirt, But still, like Dust I'll rise

They can say,
Anything they want to say,
Try to bring me down,


[url=http://postimage.org/][img][/img][/url]

But I will not allow anyone to succeed hanging clouds over me,
I will not face the ground



And they can try
How to make me feel that I,
Don't matter at all,
But I refuse to falter in what I believe or loose faith in my dreams



'Cause there's,
There's a light in me,
That shines brightly,
They can try,
But they can't take that away from me
From me



There's an inner peace I own,
Something in my soul that they can not possess
So I won't be afraid and the darkness will fade

Tell me what I believe or loose faith in my dreams,
'Cause there's a light in me,
That shines brightly yes















They can't take this
Precious love I'll always have inside me,

?



They can try but they can't take that away from
Me
From me
No no nooo
Me

October 12, 2014

Am I Next?

Stolen Lives




Please



Thank you 3ChicsPolitico.
http://3chicspolitico.com/2014/10/11/photo-gallery-fergusonoctober-justice4mikebrownrally/

October 6, 2014

Take a bow cowboy!

[url=http://postimage.org/][img][/img][/url]







Thank you President Barack Obama!

Yes, he goes it alone. He does not get much help, he seldom gets praised yet he gets plenty of criticism. Go figure~



BOG

Sigh~
****************This is POSTED IN THE BARACK OBAMA GROUP************

The last image I found on TOD~

October 4, 2014

The Woman Who Walked Into Doors. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH***Trigger Warning

President Obama Issues Proclamation Declaring October 2014 as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month

A PROCLAMATION


Domestic violence affects every American. It harms our communities, weakens the foundation of our Nation, and hurts those we love most. It is an affront to our basic decency and humanity, and it must end. During National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we acknowledge the progress made in reducing these shameful crimes, embrace the basic human right to be free from violence and abuse, and recognize that more work remains until every individual is able to live free from fear.

Last month, our Nation marked the 20th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Before this historic law, domestic violence was seen by many as a lesser offense, and women in danger often had nowhere to go. But VAWA marked a turning point, and it slowly transformed the way people think about domestic abuse. Today, as 1 out of every 10 teenagers are physically hurt on purpose by someone they are dating, we seek to once again profoundly change our culture and reject the quiet tolerance of what is fundamentally unacceptable. That is why Vice President Joe Biden launched the 1is2many initiative to engage educators, parents, and students while raising awareness about dating violence and the role we all have to play in stopping it. And it is why the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault and the newly launched "It's On Us" campaign will address the intersection of sexual assault and dating violence on college campuses.

Since VAWA's passage, domestic violence has dropped by almost two-thirds, but despite these strides, there is more to do. Nearly two out of three Americans 15 years of age or older know a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault, and domestic violence homicides claim the lives of three women every day. When women and children are deprived of a loving home, legal protections, or financial independence because they fear for their safety, our Nation is denied its full potential.

http://goldrushcam.com/sierrasuntimes/index.php/news/local-news/1025-president-obama-issues-proclamation-declaring-october-2014-as-national-domestic-violence-awareness-month

Are you aware of that...

















****TRIGGER WARNING****

The very title of the book belies the secrecy and denial permeating the novel. As any social worker can attest, ‘walking into doors’ has been so often used as an excuse to explain evidence of abuse that it has essentially become a euphemism for domestic violence. This is certainly true in the case of Paula, and while not the only sensitive subject broached in the novel, this violence is indisputably the most pronounced. In many ways, this title is a more appropriate description of Paula than “The Woman Who Was Beaten and Raped by Her Husband for Seventeen Years,” which would be, if nothing else, more descriptive. Using the euphemism of walking into doors not only describes the violence occurring but, also, the unspoken nature of this violence. As William Hutchings notes, “The book’s title is an excuse…Paula is, she discovers, ‘the invisible woman’ among doctors, nurses, family members, and friends who choose not to see and not to ask, denying both unmistakable physical evidence and their own common sense.” (Hutchings p386) Paula desperately wants one of them to call her out on her coerced lie. Her narrative becomes frantic, almost erratic, as her thoughts beg, “Ask me. In the hospital. Please, ask me. In the clinic. In the church. Ask me ask me ask me. Broken nose, loose teeth, cracked ribs. Ask me” (Doyle 187) Doyle here contrasts the helplessness of Paula with the passivity of society by placing her in environments full of healers – doctors, nurses, priests - who do nothing to help her situation. Paula says that if they could just ask the right question, she would divulge everything, but they never do and, consequently, she never does. It may appear that they simply did not notice but Paula remains convinced that, “they didn’t want to know. They’d never ask. Here’s a prescription; now fuck off.” (Doyle 190) Here, Doyle indicts not only society but the best society presumably has to offer. Not even the people who are have devoted their lives to helping people can be bothered to stop the abuse.

Through Paula, Doyle is able to finally expose society’s inaction to what is happening right before its very eyes. She cannot forgive those who stood by and did nothing although they knew exactly what was occurring. However, Doyle complicates matters by proposing that not everyone is apathetic to injustice. Some honestly believe the lie, as is the case when Paula encounters other victims. Although she wants people to recognize her own inexpressible pain, Paula, herself, has admittedly not always understood or recognized the lies others makes to keep their own secrets. It is only through her own harrowing experiences that she can begin to see behind the curtain and understand the cries of those who, like her, cannot speak. She recalls one time that she was at the hospital after a beating by Charlo where she overheard a woman “telling the nurse that she’d walked into a door, and I believed her…It never dawned on me that she was lyin, the same way I always lied.” (Doyle 200) Doyle here presents the case that the domestic violence inflicted on Paula is not isolated at all but, rather, widespread within the Irish culture. Paula does not expect other women to make the same excuses as her because she does not believe that they have a reason to lie. Because the issue was so well suppressed within society, it did not seem like a societal problem to her at all but something unique to her and Charlo’s relationship. But in reality, as in the novel, this is not the case for as Ryan points out, “In the Republic of Ireland alone, it has been estimated that a staggering one-fifth to one-third of all women have, at some time, experienced violence within a relationship, though it is thought that these figures may not cover the full extent of violence, due to so many cases remaining unreported.” (Ryan 2010; p97)

While the novel suggests that most people are resigned to see the world as they wish, no matter how obvious the darker truth is, Paula’s sister, Carmel, remains a markedly different figure. If Paula blocks all the terrible things in her life from her mind, Carmel “remembers nothing good.” (Doyle 82) The dynamic between Paula and her sister Carmel parallels the struggle between traditional denial in Ireland and new open acceptance. Paula cannot always distinguish reality from her own lies while Carmel never improves nor doubts the memories of her past as well as the current situation. This inevitably leads to Carmel’s dialogue overall suggesting a jaded view about men, but this view is not entirely unjustified. In the end, Paula admits, “Carmel saved me…Carmel saw what was happening, and she made me see.” (Doyle 188)

Read More: http://doorsofdublin.blogspot.com/2012/04/weaving-world-untold.html

The woman who walked into doors, I know her.







Break The Silence.



Say no more!